


Exo Cinderella

by dreamingofdragons



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: F/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-02-27 10:30:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13246326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingofdragons/pseuds/dreamingofdragons
Summary: Sooyoung is introduced to Exo and has to call on Baekhyun for an emergency favour faster than she would have thought possible.





	1. Daddy's Girl

Lee Sooyoung found herself under the stern regard of her father and squirmed.  
“But Father…”  
She was fully aware that her voice was unpleasantly whiny but together with the pronounced pout and dewy basset hound eyes of unspeakable suffering it was a demeanour that made her seem many years younger than her actual twenty and was usually a potent weapon against her beleaguered parent. And she needed that weapon right now. Lee Sooman held up his hand and she stopped, taken aback by the authoritative gesture.  
“No, Sooyoung-ah. Have I not been indulgent to my only daughter? Have you not always had the best education, the best clothes, the best of everything that my business could provide for you?”  
Oh shit, he really was pissed off this time, wasn’t he? Sooyoung snuck a glance towards her older brother but Soohyun could only grimace at her sympathetically. He was dressed up in his bespoke suit, utterly immaculate just as their father was and every inch the young heir to SM Entertainment. Although he was only twenty five he had the composure of someone twice his age. Lee Sooman had lucked out with his son. Soohyun was perfect and there had never been a second’s doubt that he would follow his father into the business and eventually take over the board of directors. Their father’s favourite photograph of him was when he was about six years old, sitting behind his father’s monstrous desk with a tie that came down practically to his bony knees, holding a telephone like he was already terribly busy and important. Sooyoung had never had that direction. The only real interest she had in her father’s mega company was that it generated billions of won to buy all the things she needed and she got concert tickets, CDs, merchandise and DVDs to whichever SM Entertainment groups whenever she wanted. Not to mention instantaneous access to said groups, of course. Her face brightened with a reminiscent smirk about her access to one particular member of Super Junior when she was just seventeen before falling again as she remember how that fiasco had played out. Lee Sooman did not want the talent putting hands on his precious princess. Who knew?!  
“You have, Father.” She agreed. “But…”  
“And was I not more than reasonable about this trip to Switzerland?”  
“Of course you were, Father. But…!”  
Lee Sooman suddenly fixed her with the bespectacled Look of Death. It was a look that his employees were familiar with. His precious baby girl, not quite so much. She wilted.  
“45,326,514 won!” He suddenly roared. “That is the credit card bill that landed on my desk this morning! For less than a month in Switzerland!”  
Ahhhhhh, shit. Sooyoung had known the amount would be extravagant but this… she had outdone herself, this time. Soohyun had turned rather pale.  
“Sooyoung-ah!” He whispered, clearly appalled.  
She winced. OK, the excuses were not going to play this time. Short of paying her own ransom if she’d been held hostage by kidnappers the sheer amount of money was inexcusable. Plan B… grovel. Abjectly.  
“Appa, I’m sorry.” She whimpered, tears oozing from her big, brown eyes. “It won’t happen again. I’ll pay you back.”  
“From the allowance that I give you?” Sooman replied icily. “You’ll generously pay me back with more of my own hard-earned money?”  
Sooyoung’s shoulders hunched defensively. Soohyun had been working in the company since he was sixteen; just casual work because he had to focus on his studies. But once he’d earned his MBA from Harvard he’d started work full time. Sooyoung had never felt the need to work in the company during her holidays. She had stuff to do! And other than moments of regretful disappointment her father had never really given her grief about it.  
“Well I’m still studying, appa.” She replied somewhat resentfully. “Even Soohyun didn’t work when he was studying!”  
“But you’re not, are you?”  
Her father growled, beginning to turn rather red in the face. “Because you dropped out for a gap year to “find yourself”!”  
“Appa!” She wailed. “I don’t know what I want to do yet and I thought I was being a good daughter, not wasting any more of your money while I figure it out!”  
“You spend my money!” Sooman exploded, almost yanking out his hair. “You are frivolous and entitled and act like you have no idea at all about the value of money! You think my background; how I started this company from nothing and built it up to the biggest music company in Asia is just a charming little fairy tale!”  
“Father.” Soohyun said very gently. It was enough to make his father take a breath; his colouring easing from an unhealthy purple to a rather more heart-friendly pink.  
“And can I truly blame you?” Sooman asked heavily. “When I have indulged you so? When I have never placed any expectations or obligations on your shoulders? From this, how can you be expected to truly understand the value of money unless I teach you, just as I did your brother?”  
Uh, what? Sooyoung was not liking the sound of this. Pale and clammy for her father’s utterly unprecedented eruption she chewed worriedly on her lower lip.  
“T…teach…?” She asked hesitantly. Sooman’s eyes narrowed and she could see that brilliant, analytical brain begin to whirr.   
“Teach you.” He agreed slowly. “My daughter, as you have taken a year away from your studies to figure out what you want to do, your father will help you. For this year you will come to work for SM Entertainment. I will give you the standard wage for the job you do and you can pay me back, as you so generously offered. By the time the year ends I believe you will be truly grateful for the good education I pay for and a little more appreciative of the life of privilege that was given to you by God.”  
“But I don’t want…!” Sooyoung may be foolish but she was not a fool. And the look she saw on her father’s face had her firmly snapping her jaw closed on that particular sentence. Feeling like she was swallowing a golf ball and beginning to sweat a little she bowed low and respectfully to her father. “Whatever you say, Father.” She croaked.

“No!” Sooyoung wailed. “It’s a cruel and unusual punishment, slave labour and I won’t do it!”  
“Sooyoung-ah.” Her mother Eunjin was lovely. She was a graceful, refined and elegant lady and an absolute asset to her business mogul husband. Sitting beside her only daughter as she sprawled across her bed and howled like a tortured soul, one would be forgiven not to see the family resemblance. Stroking her daughter’s thick hair gently she smoothed it back from her face. “Your father will pay you the same wage to do the job as any other employee.”  
“All my wage will go right back to him to pay off the debt!” Her child howled. “I’ll be working for nothing. Cleaning… for nothing!”  
Such was her horror and disgust Eunjin wondered if her precious darling had misunderstood the word “cleaning” and thought her father had suggested working in a brothel instead.  
“It’s a valuable skill, my love.” She suggested mildly. “Just because we are lucky enough not to have to clean, does not mean we should not be able to.”  
“We have an army of maids. An army!” Sooyoung rolled over far enough to be able to glare at her mother. “I’ll marry well, amma, you know I will. I’ll never need skills like this!”  
At this even Eunjin’s beautiful face shadowed with disappointment.  
“Sooyoung.” The gentle, loving reproach in her voice was even worse than her father’s rage. Tears rolling down her cheeks now Sooyoung buried her face in her mother’s lap and sobbed. Her mother soothed her with soft noises and caresses. “Is your pride more important than your relationship with your father?” She asked gently. “If it is… then I shall see what I can do to intervene.”  
Sooyoung went rather still.  
“Our… our relationship?”  
“This is important to him, my dear. So very important. It would make him so very proud of you, Sooyoung.”  
A wet, unladylike sniff emerged from the depths of her lap.  
“P…proud?”  
“His only daughter working so hard, so keen to honour all her father’s hard work. Oh yes, my light, he will be so very proud of you.”  
There was a long pause.  
“Soohyun didn’t clean.” Sooyoung said miserably. Eunjin scooped back the almost hip-length waterfall of glossy, jet hair and secured it with a stunning mother of pearl clip. Leaning down, she softly kissed her daughter’s hot, wet cheek and murmured into her ear.  
“Indeed yes, my dove. Even Soohyun never cleaned.”  
Sooyoung was quite aware that her mother loved and adored Soohyun just as much as she did Sooyoung, just as she was a wily and cunning woman should the occasion demand it – and a potential massive rift forming between her husband and daughter would demand it – but as the sibling rivalry button was well and truly pushed Sooyoung was utterly helpless but to respond. Doing somewhat that the perfect Soohyun had never done, her mind whispered enticingly, because even Soohyun had always worked at business level. Finally coming out on top and being the good, dutiful daughter! Rolling over she looked suspiciously up at her mother but Eunjin’s beautiful face was as serene and tranquil as a summer meadow.  
“But… what if… what if they hate me?” She asked in a small voice as she admitted the thing that had been truly terrifying her. “Amma… What if they’re mean to me?”  
Eunjin’s face softened; her dark eyes brimming with overwhelming love.  
“You are the sun in the sky and the birdsong on a summer’s day.” She replied softly. “My precious girl… who could help but love you?”

Sooyoung tried not to twitch. The job that her father wanted her to do for a whole year was to act as “house mother” to one of the SM Entertainment groups. She would cook, clean, do the shopping and laundry and whatever else it took to make sure the group was happy and comfortable at home.  
“You won’t be introduced as my daughter and you must not tell them.” Sooman told her sternly. “Out of respect for me and intimidation they’ll try to do everything themselves and they’re already hard-working boys.”  
“Boys?” Sooyoung was alarmed. “I have to be house mother to a group of stinky boys? Why not Girls’ Generation or Red Velvet? Appa…!”  
“Because within the week the house would be a mess and I’d find you sharing clothes and makeup with the girls like you’re a group member but without actually doing any of the work.” Sooman replied with a glimmer of amusement. “No, you’ll look after the boys. They’ve just moved into the old Super Junior dorm so there’s a room you can have.”  
As usual, at the dreaded words “Super Junior” father and daughter’s eyes slid away from each other and they developed a sudden fascination in the floor and out of the window. Gazing with apparent fascination at the Seoul skyline, Sooman said very quietly, “I do not need to mention that we discourage romance for our boys quite vigorously. Very vigorously when that romance shows signs of happening with my daughter.”  
Yeah. She remembered. Forcing the discomfort aside Sooyoung focused on her father’s words and her forehead furrowed.  
“A room I can have?” She faltered. “But I have my room.”  
“The position is live-in, Sooyoung-ah. The boys work a busy schedule and long hours. You need to be there.”  
“I have to look after them all the time?” Sooyoung could not have been more appalled had he told her she was adopted, and her old family wanted her back. “But appa, I have a life!”  
“Your life is this job now.” He told her flatly. His dark eyes were watchful behind his glasses as he watched his daughter have a nervous breakdown. “You’re a smart girl, Sooyoung, and tougher than you’ve ever given yourself credit for because you’ve never had to be. But this year will truly test you. And maybe at the end of it you’ll want to slide straight back into this easy life. If you do I will respect your decision and I will provide for you just as I always have. But maybe you will realise that you deserve so very much more than that.”  
She felt a lump in her throat. Her father thought she was smart and tough. Her father thought she would truly be able to do this. For the first time in her life she had the chance to truly impress him. Sooyoung took a shuddering breath and thought longingly of their penthouse, double-floored apartment in Gangnam. Squaring her shoulders, she bowed respectfully to her father.  
“I won’t let you down.”

She was going to let him down. Oh man, was she ever going to let him down! Probably never in his wildest dreams of disappointment would her father expect her to run away within the first five minutes and turn up back at home fully prepared to risk him never speaking to her again.  
“We just moved in last week.” The senior manager of super group Exo told her with visible pleasure. “The old dorm was a lot smaller and more crowded. Poor Baekhyun had to sleep in the living room.”   
Poor Baekhyun? Poor Sooyoung! There were ten of them! Ten young men and five managers that would almost always be around. Ten pets that she would also have to look after and so many rooms…! SM Entertainment was a powerhouse, and wealthy. Exo were one of the most popular groups in SM and therefore got one of the nicest dorms. Whatever poor conditions some groups had to live in, that did not apply to these boys. They got space!  
“This is your room. It’s not much…” Not much?! She had a sudden sympathy for Harry Potter because this was pretty much the cupboard under the stairs. There was just enough room for a captain-style bed that she’d reach with a ladder and the space beneath had been fitted with a rail for her clothes and some drawers. She had a sliver of window that ended abruptly at the wall and presumably, whatever room lay on the other side of that wall got the rest of it. The walls were white, the floor was plain and… well, that was it. It felt like a damned prison cell! “But come and see the rest of the dorm. The boys have six bedrooms between them.”  
Sooyoung trotted after him as he walked along the corridor, pushing doors open around him. Four of them had twin beds but two of the members seemed to have their own room. There were three bathrooms over the two floors, a crowded kitchen with two giant fridge freezers, a spacious lounge area with humongous couches and an honest-to-god games room. And all of it was now under her command.  
“It’s messy in here. We haven’t had a cleaner since we moved in. But the cleaning closet is in here…” He pulled open a door to reveal a closet dedicated to all the cleaning supplies she would need to keep this place clean and tidy. “The laundry room is down on the first floor and the boys won’t be back until around eleven o clock tonight. For dinner you can just make something in the big pot that can be easily re-heated. Thanks for your hard work!”  
And with that he flashed her a cheerful grin and left. Sooyoung looked around wide-eyed at the dusty shelves, messy floor and piles of stuff. Oh dear Lord, this was actually real, wasn’t it?

Her clothes were unpacked and crammed into the drawers and the single clothes rail. Her new bedding for a single bed was in place and a couple of art prints from home brightened the sterile white walls. Pulling her hair into a twist she changed from her pretty skirt and blouse into a pair of black yoga pants and T-shirt and covered the lot with a pink, frilly apron that Soohyun had bought her as a joke before she left. Grabbing an armful of supplies she trekked into the lounge and glared around her, ready to attack.  
“Fighting!” She barked. And still stood there. She looked down at the cleaning supplies doubtfully. The shelves should not be dusty and there definitely should not be crunchy shit all over the floor but exactly what she had to do to make that go away remained a mystery. She chewed on her lower lip and finally pulled out a bottle of livid blue liquid that declared itself to be floor cleaner. Floor cleaner! Well, she wanted to clean the floor, did she not? This was a great place to start!

It was not a great place to start. Sloshing blue liquid over the crunchy shit on the floor turned it into mushy wet shit that stuck to the floor like papier mache. Dusting the shelves then added a layer of fuzzy grey dust to that mush and within half an hour she’d made such a mess that she could hardly believe her eyes.  
“Mindae, Unni…” Her voice was a restrained shriek as she dialled a number on her phone. “Help me!”  
“Miss Sooyoung, whatever is the matter?” Mindae, the Lee family’s chief housekeeper sounded alarmed.  
“You have to teach me how to clean. I don’t know what to do! I tried… I really tried but I made such a mess and they’ll be home any time now! And I must make dinner, something in a big pot and I don’t know what that means, or what to cook, or how to cook and…”  
All credit to Mindae, there was a reason she had lasted so long with the family.  
“Miss Sooyoung.” She gently but firmly interrupted Sooyoung’s hysterical babbling. “Do you have a pen and paper? OK, take notes now. I’ll explain to you what you need to do to clean each room. And dinner? Hmmm… OK, for today I’ll send something over to you but then we’ll talk about the sort of recipes that you need to cook for ten young men. Are you ready?”  
Gripping the note pad and pen like the woman was about the tell her the meaning of life Sooyoung nodded furiously.  
“Ready!”  
“Good. This is what you need to do…”

It was late. The door to the dorm was flung open and a wall of noise as ten young men flooded through the door and headed up to the lounge and kitchen. Shoes were kicked off in the entryway, coats were flung in a heap and it was a barefoot, weary, slightly stinky group of young men that appeared. One of them looked in amazement at the young woman that was crumpled on their sofa, fast asleep despite the noise.  
“Hyung.” He called in accented Korean. “Hyung! Why is there a strange woman asleep on our sofa?” He crouched down beside her; inky black hair falling forward into his ludicrously handsome face. Tilting his head to the side he looked momentarily excited. “Is she for me? She’s very dirty but then I also have been practising very hard today and have not yet had a shower.”  
The hyung he’d called to came over; his stunning face alive with curiosity but at his dongsaeng’s words his eyes rolled so hard they almost fell out.   
“We do not gift each other with people, Yixing-ah. Modern slavery. It’s a thing.” Taking in the small and fragile figure he noticed that her flawless, pale skin was indeed smudged with dirt. Her cheek was pressed to her hand and the hand in question had a beautiful pink manicure decorated with moulded white roses. Well, some of the fingers did at least; the young man winced at the sight of a couple of ragged nails. “This must be our new house mother. Manager hyung said that she’d be arriving today.”  
“Ah! She cleaned! Good, it smells much better in here now.” Yixing commented and then his brow furrowed. “Does she sleep on our sofa, though? That could get inconvenient. What if I want to stretch out my legs? Maybe she wouldn’t want my feet on her.”  
“No one in their right mind wants your feet on them!” Sehun called from nearby. The conversation had attracted his interest and he wandered over, his eyebrows winging briefly. “House mother? Junmyeon hyung, she’s younger than I am!” He studied her sleeping face and murmured, almost to himself. “She’s really pretty.”  
The Exo leader straightened up, suddenly decisive.  
“Young indeed but I’m sure management knows best. And no, she won’t be sleeping on our sofa. She has the small room next to the downstairs bathroom.”  
“That’s much better.” Yixing agreed approvingly. “Come on, sleeping princess, your bed will be more comfortable.” And so saying he scooped her up into his arms and headed towards the small bedroom that belonged to their unexpected guest.

Sooyoung opened her eyes, blinking in confusion at the sight of the stupendously handsome face so close to hers but too exhausted to freak out.  
“If you’re carrying me away to murder me, please let it be in a place with a bathroom that’s less revolting than yours.” She mumbled and his lips twitched.  
“A murder victim with standards. How refreshing.”  
She was fairly confident that he wasn’t about to murder her. For a start the arms cradling her to his broad chest were innately protective. He carried her like she was something fragile.  
“You’re so handsome.” She murmured sleepily. He looked down at her and his silken black hair tangled with his thick eyelashes. His smile was like sunshine.  
“You’re pretty.” He replied solemnly. His brow furrowed and he ducked his head, sniffing at her hair. “Even if you do smell like sweaty socks.”  
“Shut up, you.” She groaned. “It’s probably your sweaty socks that I smell of. Horrible men. Why did I ever work so hard to look pretty for you grubby creatures?”  
“I apologise for the entire male sex.” He drawled, his lips quirking into a grin. Nudging the bedroom door open with his butt he placed her gently onto her bed and pulled the cover over her. “Princess, my name is Yixing. What’s yours?”  
“Cinderella.” She groaned, and closing her eyes she snuggled into her blankets and fell asleep again within seconds to the sound of his soft laughter.


	2. Not Such a Domestic Goddess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooyoung is introduced to Exo and has to call on Baekhyun for an emergency favour faster than she would have thought possible.

She woke up early the next morning; refreshed from a deep sleep. Swinging her legs out of bed she dropped down to the floor. Urgh! She was filthy! The first thing she had to do was take a shower. Then breakfast, with lots of coffee. She was starving. Her mouth was already watering at the thought of still-warm, flaky croissants. Stripping out of yesterday’s filthy clothes she wrapped a towel around her body, grabbed another for her hair and her bathroom supplies. She slid out of her door and went to go into the bathroom next door. It was already locked and her eyebrows shot up in outrage. She’d never had to wait for the bathroom in her life! Back home she had an en-suite. Still half-asleep and outraged she banged hard on the door.  
“Yah! Some of us need to pee!”  
“Join the queue.” A voice drawled from nearby and she almost levitated. Surely she hadn’t be so very focused on getting into the bathroom that she’d utterly failed to notice the utterly unmissable Exo member leaning patiently against the wall? Indeed yes, she had. Because there he was. Six feet tall in his bare feet and wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his narrow hips. Sooyoung felt her jaw drop. It wasn’t that she’d never seen a young man in an almost naked state; her little… indiscretion with the formerly mentioned Super Junior member had seen to that. Although admittedly since then the sheer dramatic scale of mortified embarrassment had ensured that she really hadn’t wanted to see another one. It was just that this guy was… was… God-like. Tall, with shoulders so broad he could surely carry a cow over each one, and my God but those muscles were sheer perfection. His legs went on for miles and there wasn’t an inch of give to those rock-hard muscles. He had abs like cobblestones and all of it, every single centimetre was covered in skin that had the lustre of raw silk. Her fingers twitched instinctively with the need to touch. “Not that it isn’t flattering but I’m a little unnerved to be stared at like a juicy steak laid in front of a slavering wolverine.”  
“W… wolverine?” Her voice lifted to a disbelieving squeak. He had thick, black hair with a hint of a wave and it stuck up in all directions like he’d just rolled out of bed Thinking about this guy in bed was a major mistake. If he was just wearing a towel, then did that mean he slept… naked? And the thought of that body rolling around completely nude in silken cotton sheets was brain-melting enough that a sound that was very like a moan bubbled up from her depths. His eyebrows quirked although his face stayed still and calm.  
“Which bit bothers you the most? That I’ve called you out on blatantly checking me out or the comparison with a feral rat?”  
“All… all of it!” Sooyoung was so outraged that she was stuttering. She missed the quickly hidden smirk.  
“So, you’re not gazing hungrily at my crotch?”  
“No!” She wailed, feeling her complexion go from pale to burning scarlet within .2 of a second. And she hadn’t been. Granted, every other part of his body had been fair game but her eyes had kept respectfully away from the towel-covered areas. Saying that he’d mentioned it, however… Her eyes dropped down. Accused of murder, you may as well kill someone, huh? She was helpless but to stop her tongue slipping out and swiping at her suddenly dry lips. The towel really wasn’t all that big. Thick, strong, downright biteable thighs draped by the dark green towelling, rising to an apex and his crotch and she hadn’t had many men at all but inexperienced as she was even she could tell that he was packing some serious weaponry under there.  
“Wolverine.” He cooed with some satisfaction and her eyes snapped back to his like they’d been fired out of a cannon.

The bathroom door opening was a shock to both of them but probably even more so for the short, slim figure now standing in the doorway in a pair of jogging bottoms and nothing else. His wet hair fell messily into his face and a damp towel was draped casually over one shoulder. He took in the situation at a glance.  
“Sehun-ah, I am not seeing you in nothing but a smirk and a hard-on at first thing in the morning with our new house mother.” He sounded hopeful, as though if he pretended hard enough he could un-see just that. His eyes swung to her. “Miss… erm…”  
“Lee Sooyoung.” She automatically switched gears. There was something about him that reminded her strongly of the young men she had grown up with and she gave him her very best smile. Exquisite manners kicked in and his hand reached out automatically.   
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Sooyoung. I am Kim Junmyeon.”  
“A pleasure.”   
“Oh no, the pleasure is all mine.” Hands clasped they smiled at each other until a snort of laughter had them looking down the hall where another Exo member – this one wearing nothing but Calvin Klein’s – had joined them. Even taller than Sehun he had scarlet red, wavy hair, bright brown eyes and a dazzling smile.  
“Leader hyung.” He commented in a sing song manner. “Didn’t you tell me that it was inappropriate to flirt with the fans at the meets? Should I have dragged them into a corridor and stripped down instead?”  
Junmyeon’s face turned scarlet. “It isn’t like that!”  
“It’s not?” The redhead cooed. “Because three half naked guys and a girl in a towel it surely does look like that porno you have on your tablet that you think no one knows about…”  
“Chanyeol!” The leader’s head looked like it was about to explode, Sehun cracked up laughing and Sooyoung wondered what the hell she had got into. Her eyes met Chanyeol’s and he winked at her.  
“Hello, darling. It’s nice to see you conscious. Welcome to the team.”

Junmyeon took a moment to recover. Sooyoung took a moment to study him. As leader of Exo he had a very important job, but it was almost impossible to tell that just by looking at him. Fresh from the shower he looked scrubbed and clean and she liked the way his hair fell in wet, almost black tangles. Maybe there were touches of his job though, she thought: his large, sparkling brown eyes were faintly shadowed with violet from lack of sleep and his unexpectedly thick and decisive eyebrows were an incongruously manly touch on what was a startlingly beautiful man.  
“Miss Sooyoung. Obviously, we’d all prefer to have your first introductions to Exo in a more… formal setting.” He licked his lips nervously. Sehun opened his mouth to say something, already smirking and the look his leader shot him had him closing his mouth fast. “Shall we meet upstairs in the lounge? Say about thirty minutes? And I’ll introduce you.”  
He was impressive. Dealing with two cackling teammates dressed in nothing much at all and a strange woman wearing just a towel, Kim Junmyeon had recovered from his embarrassment and was smiling a sweet, tranquil smile. Sooyoung felt her smile well up from somewhere deep inside. She instinctively liked this guy. Bowing her head in graceful acceptance she was about to sweep regally into the now unoccupied bathroom when she almost bounced off the long, muscular arm that suddenly barred the way.  
“Hang on for an hour and you can spend all damn day in the bath once we’re gone.” Sehun said bluntly. “But I’m first.”  
“But… I’m a girl.” Sooyoung was so astonished that she could hardly digest his words. Sehun laughed at her.  
“And I’m the maknae with eight hyungs. Better believe how spoiled and bratty that makes me.”  
“You’re an ass!” Sooyoung exploded. Completely unperturbed by this Sehun widened his eyes in mock indignation.  
“I’m a feminist. Equal opportunities for all, babe.” And making a kissy face at her, he shut the door firmly in her face.

Having all of five minutes to shower after Sehun finally dragged his bratty ass out of the bathroom Sooyoung threw on clean underwear, leggings and a T-shirt before she ran a brush through her hip-length hair. She didn’t have time to blow dry it, so she pulled it back into a loose braid and felt it drip moisture down her spine with a shudder. A touch of mascara and a smudge of lip gloss completed the look and she looked somewhat hopefully in the mirror. Her face dropped. Hell, if she had ever gone to a fan-meet to meet Exo she would never have dressed like this! If she’d attended a formal occasion with them she would flat out have refused to go if she had looked even a fraction this hideous. Slipping her bare feet into house slippers she padded across to the lounge where it seemed that all nine members were already gathered. Suddenly – unusually – intimidated she hovered in the doorway and wondered whether she could run back to her room and abandon all silly thoughts about actually meeting them. She could just come out when they were gone and clean, like a brownie. Maybe she could go fully nocturnal and every time they woke up the apartment would have gone from boy-stinky to flawless like magic.  
“Ah! It is the princess!” A sudden cry stopped her dead in her tracks before she could run anywhere. Yixing had spotted her and came loping over. “You look so much better when you’re clean.”  
“Charmed.” She replied dryly and he grinned. Oh! Oh now that was just unfair! A dimple? As if the man wasn’t blessed with enough? Resting her hand gently on the small of her back he escorted her over to Junmyeon. She didn’t know anything about his background and Yixing might be independently wealthy but more likely the man simply had innate grace and charm. He escorted her like she was indeed the princess he called her. The leader greeted her with a smile.  
“Guys, this is our new house mother. Her name is Lee Sooyoung. Come and introduce yourselves.”  
Fully dressed in black jogging bottoms and a black T-shirt Sehun rose gracefully from the sofa and took a step towards her. Junmyeon shot him a look. “She’s already met you, Sehun-ah.”  
Sehun made a face that was somewhere between a pout and a smirk.  
“Yah, leader! You say that like I didn’t make a good impression!” He whined and Junmyeon rolled his eyes to heaven.  
“You’ve met Yixing and Chanyeol. This is our eldest member, Minseok hyung.” Sooyoung’s eyes widened slightly at the sight of small, ferociously adorable with eyes that could double as lethal weapons. He shook her hand and gave her a smile. He seemed kind and warm; a spark of mischief in the back of his stunning eyes. “This is Baekhyun.”  
“Ya, Sooyoung-ah! You must look after us well!” Taller than Minseok this dynamo now grinning at her had a triangular, extraordinarily attractive face and sparkling brown eyes. Grabbing hold of both her hands he gazed earnestly into her eyes. Sooyoung felt herself starting to blush.  
“Baekhyun, oppa, I promise!” She stammered and he nodded with approval. Junmyeon patted the shoulder of another one of the guys.  
“This is Jongdae.” He grinned at her and the warm charisma of him hit her hard. “And our Kyungsoo.” His black hair was cut close to his head; the fringe just tickling the top of his forehead and it only drew attention to huge dark eyes and a truly stunning-looking face. He had none of the exuberance of his groupmates and his smile was professional, although warm enough. “And finally, Jongin.”  
Good. Lord. Sooyoung was more familiar with some members of Exo than she was with others and she knew Jongin’s – stage name Kai – face quite well. It was a face that anyone would remember. Close up and without any makeup at all the man was heart-breaking. Tall and with a body that could stop traffic his hair was bleached to a platinum blond and fell into truly stupendous eyes. And his mouth…! Sweet Jesus, that mouth…  
“Kai oppa, I’m your fan!” She squeaked, quite excited. She’s begged and pleaded with her brother for weeks to get this guy’s autograph and bring it home for her. His mouth curved up at the corners.  
“Sooyoung-ah, then please look after me well.” He requested in a deep, velvety voice that trickled through her ears like honey and seemed to melt her brain the moment it made contact. She swooned a little, nodding with enthusiasm before she made the mistake of glancing in Sehun’s general direction and catching his undisguised smirk of disbelief. Blushing scarlet she stepped back from Jongin and bowed in the general direction of all of them.  
“Thank you all for trusting me. I shall do my very best to make your lives pleasant and comfortable.”  
“Really so?” Chanyeol asked with a sigh. “In that case please force manager hyung to let me sleep in by about another four hours in the morning.”  
“She’s our housekeeper, not a magician.”  
Kyungsoo grumbled and the guys began to gather together their bags and whatever else they needed for today.  
“Are you doing something fun today?”  
Sooyoung asked curiously and Junmyeon turned his attention back to her.  
“Today we have two TV appearances and a magazine photoshoot. It’s going to be a full day.”  
“You’ll need something good for dinner then.” She commented, chewing nervously on her lower lip. “Something filling, to build strength and stamina but not sit too heavily on your stomachs if it’s very late.”  
Junmyeon sighed, his brown eyes taking on the warmth and liquidity of melting chocolate.  
“Oh wow, that sounds wonderful. If its anything like what you made yesterday, then we’ll be indebted to you forever. That was amazing.”  
“Aw man, it was so good.”  
“The best thing ever!”  
“Something just like that, Sooyoung-ah!” The others chorused and Sooyoung felt her smile take on a sickly tinge. Mindae had made that, whatever it had been. Might she be willing to make up something for tonight? Her father would go nuts if he found out. She was supposed to be doing this all by herself.  
“You’re too kind.”  
She said queasily. Junmyeon’s face lit up with a smile and he gently squeezed her shoulder.  
“Do your best today. Fighting!”  
“Fighting!”  
She echoed instinctively, and he grinned. The pack of them spilled out of the lounge and down the stairs and looking out of the window she watched them pile into two mini-buses. It was suddenly, shockingly silent. Sooyoung grimaced. Time to work then?

At least she knew to thoroughly sweep the floors now before she put clean, fresh water and floor cleaner into the mop bucket. Investigating the impressive sound system, she picked out a SHINee CD and slid it into the machine. As the familiar melody of Wanted blasted out Sooyoung got into the groove and the mop slid over the swept floors, wiping away months of neglect and dust. Dust the shelves and marvel and the sheer volume of comic books, action figures and geek memorabilia as Sherlock kicked in and looking around in growing surprise and pleasure. It looked better! What next? For a moment her flushed face curved with a mischievous and slightly evil smile.  
“Weird as it may seem, there are about ten million girls who would literally kill to go where I’m about to go.” She murmured to herself. “It is time for… the bedrooms!”

She wandered through the rooms with genuine curiosity, trying to match the boys she had just met with their most personal space. From the list that the manager had pressed on her yesterday she knew that Junmyeon shared with Sehun, Chanyeol and Jongin roomed together as did Yixing and Jongdae. As the eldest Minseok had his own room and for whatever reasons so did Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. Her forehead furrowed as she wondered why that was when even the leader had to share a room, and with the youngest member to boot. Maybe Sehun was so bratty and awful that he needed Junmyeon’s authoritative and calming presence 24/7? Sooyoung smirked at the thought and her own bitchy nature. Wandering through the rooms she flushed a little. She had liked the guys this morning, and they were trusting her. It was invasive to peer at their stuff like this and she knew it. Giving herself a mental spanking she turned her attention to collecting up any dirty clothes. That’s what Mindae had said to do next, right? Laundry was important! A rogue image of Sehun this morning escaped into her conscious thoughts and for a moment she froze, remembering the stunning perfection of his almost-naked figure. She looked down at the two unmade beds. Which one would be his? Would he favour the sinfully soft oatmeal-coloured bedding, or had he chosen the more dramatically coloured navy and black? Which cloth had touched that bare skin?  
“Get a grip!”  
She scolded herself, slightly horrified. Getting stalker-ish tendencies towards that guy on her first morning here was a one-way trip to disaster. Laundry! Do the damn laundry! Clumsily starting to strip the oatmeal-coloured bed Sooyoung was stopped abruptly in her tracks as a piece of the duvet cover brushed against her face. She was weak! She was weak and a damn stalker but before her brain could convince the rest of her that this was not a healthy thing to do she buried her face in the bedding and breathed in deeply. It wasn’t fresh by any stretch of the imagination and her nose wrinkled. It seemed that rolling around on these sheets had imbued them with essence of either Sehun or Junmyeon. It was a smell that was almost 50% pure pheromone and her knees weakened for a moment. OK, that was quite enough of that! Her arms full of dirty bedding Sooyoung trudged off downstairs towards the mysterious lair of the washing machine.

All nine beds had been stripped of their sheets and changed. The dirty bedding had all been washed and she’d pinned it outside on the washing lines she’d discovered to dry in the hot Seoul summer air. She sniffed it appreciatively. Mindae was totally right: a 60° wash with lots of detergent and fabric softener had made the bedding smell divine. Next was their personal clothing. Flinging it into the washing machine merrily she suddenly froze with horror before she set the cycle. Gingerly pulling the door back open she pulled it out all again and began to sort the colours into two piles: her stomach churning with adrenaline from the near miss. Aw man, it would have been hideous if she’d had to explain to Jongin why she’d dyed his favourite white shirt pink because of Baekhyun’s red socks! Way to impress a guy! But it was alright! She had totally caught it in time! And look how great the sheets looked! She was clearly a laundry goddess. Smirking to herself in triumph and satisfaction Sooyoung hesitated for a moment as she came across three sweaters from Sehun and Junmyeon’s room. Her brother had ones just like this. They were pure cashmere and they’d cost him a small fortune. Sinfully soft, Sooyoung held one of them up to her cheek for a moment, luxuriating in the caress of the material against her skin. Someone had taste!

Someone was going to kill her. Oh man, was she ever so completely dead. Looking in disbelief down at the wet sweater in her hands she wondered how something so beautiful could be so radically altered. Bad enough that for some mysterious reason the cashmere seemed to have compressed into some thicker, coarser felt but it had also shrunk down to something a teddy bear might be able to wear. Maybe. If it was a seriously small teddy bear. A choked scream welled up in her throat.  
“Fuck!” She wailed. “Oh, my Goooooooooood!” Oh my God, oh my God, she was so dead! They’d fire her for this! Absolute gross incompetence! Refusing to do this job was one thing but she imagined the look on her father’s face once they told him she was simply too damned stupid to do it and something curled up inside her in a strong desire to die. What to do? What would she do if she fucked up this spectacularly at home? Replace it! That’s what she would do. OK…. So… where would she find three sweaters just like this? Frantic and desperate Sooyoung’s eyes landed on the list that the manager had given her yesterday. She had no clue who the sweaters belonged to and where she could find new ones but… but there was someone that just might.

“Hello?”  
A guarded, wary voice that was entirely unlike the one that she had heard this morning answered the phone to her.  
“Baekhyun! Oppa! Don’t hang up, it’s Sooyoung!”  
“Sooyoung-ah!”  
The caution and unfriendliness melted away to allow Baekhyun’s sunshine voice in all its glory to trickle into her ears.  
“Sorry for calling you when I know that you’re so busy but oppa, this is such an emergency!” She hissed dramatically.  
“An emergency? What kind of emergency? Did the dorm burn down?”  
“Worse!”  
“Worse than the dorm burning down! Then why the hell did you call me? Call Junmyeon! He’s the leader! He gets to deal with things worse than the dorm burning down!”  
“I can’t call Junmyeon because this affects Junmyeon!” She wailed back at him. “Oppa, I was doing laundry and you know the cashmere sweaters? The really, really nice cashmere sweaters?”  
“Oh yeah! Junmyeon’s sweaters! They were a gift from his…” Baekhyun’s chatty voice stopped abruptly and there was a very long silence. “Oh shit, what happened with the sweaters?”  
“They’re kinda… small.” She replied in an equally miniature voice.  
“How small?”  
“Like… way small.”  
There was a shocked gasp down the line and then she heard Baekhyun burst into helpless laughter. The little shit was almost weeping with hilarity. Sooyoung glared down the phone like he’d be able to see her death glare.  
“You’re so dead.” He eventually managed to gasp. “Junmyeon loves those sweaters.”  
“I can replace them, but I need you! You need to find out where he got them from! Sneakily!”  
“Sneakily? I can be sneaky. I can be super stealthy!”  
“You need to be so damned stealthy that he forgets about those sweaters the moment after you ask him the question. Those sweaters need to be the furthest thing on his mind when he gets home tonight!”  
OK, OK.” Baekhyun made an effort to pull himself together. “I’ll find out and call you back. Are you sure that you can deal with this? Junmyeon’s family has money. I don’t know how much those sweaters cost, but they will not be cheap.” A note of concern entered his voice. “Sooyoung-ah, do you need some money for this?”  
From wanting to strangle him with her bare hands to wanting to kiss him within .05 of a second, Sooyoung thought with amusement. What a sweetheart!  
“Just find out where he got the sweaters from, oppa. And thanks for helping me. It’s not the greatest introduction, is it?”  
“It’s memorable.” Baekhyun murmured and she could almost see his smirk. His tone altered again, suddenly alarmed. “Hey Sooyoung-ah, you haven’t touched my laundry, right?”  
“Erm…”  
“Get away from my clothes, you butcher!”

The guys filtered into the dorm around eleven in the evening. They were exhausted, starving hungry and perversely still wired as hell from the adrenaline from the last TV show recording. Kyungsoo looked around with pleasant surprise and breathed in the mingling scents of polish, detergent and something completely edible.  
“This is better.”  
He murmured with relief. If the state of untidiness had continued, or God-forbid got even worse, then he’d been fully prepared to start scrubbing. It was a relief that he didn’t need to.  
“Aw man, that smells amazing.” Chanyeol groaned, heading straight for the kitchen. “Oh hey, Sooyoung-ah! It’s hot!”  
“I saw the cars pulling in.” Sooyoung replied, busy stirring the food in the huge pot and edging the tall man away from the pin with a sweet smile so he wouldn’t notice the takeaway cartons. “Rice is ready. Get a bowl.”  
“This smells like… like…” Yixing had his nose in the air and his eyes screwed tight shut and Sooyoung smiled helplessly.  
“Hopefully it smells like beef stew.”  
“Beef stew!” He declared rapturously. “That’s exactly what it smells like!”  
“Well are you going to eat it or just smell it all night?”  
He was a stupendously handsome man. She used that excuse for why her voice had taken on a decidedly flirtatious tone. He grinned back at her.  
“I’m going to put my entire head in the pan and swim in it.”  
“Not until you’ve showered, you won’t.”  
Junmyeon said dryly as he came in behind them. Sooyoung twitched at the sight of him, turning away before he developed soul-searching abilities and read her guilt stamped all over her face. He looked exhausted and that, along with the guilt had Sooyoung heading over to him. Gently she edged him down into a chair at the dining table.  
“Rest, oppa. You must be hungry?”  
“I am but I should…”  
Junmyeon half rose out of the chair and then subsided as Sooyoung put a little pressure on his shoulder. With a groan he smiled wryly as she dished up a huge bowl of beef stew and another of rice and carried them both over to him.  
“Eat.” She told him sternly and then softened, smiling. “Thank you for your hard work today, leader. You did well.”  
“How do you know I did well?” He asked with mild amusement. “I might be a horrible leader.”  
“He isn’t.”  
Yixing said affectionately as he took another seat at the table with his bowls. Blushing a little Junmyeon scooped up a mouthful of stew and popped it into his mouth. His eyes closed in reaction and some tension eased imperceptibly from his frame. Smiling, Sooyoung switched on the kettle to make green tea.

“Oh hey, why does Baekhyun hyung get extra portions?”  
Sehun whined with outrage as Sooyoung silently set the serving in front of the vertically challenged charmer. Baekhyun’s eyes met hers and his eyebrow rose in silent query. Getting a feline smile of triumph in response he muffled his laughter in his tea.  
“I’m a growing boy.”  
“You’re twenty-three!”  
Gathered around the table the members of Exo ate their food with healthy appetites and enjoyment. Sitting close to Sooyoung Yixing pulled a chair out for her and patted the place next to him.  
“Sit down, little princess. You have worked hard today.”  
“Oh, not a fraction of what you guys got up today.”  
Sooyoung protested, both flustered and undeniably pleased. Junmyeon flashed her a smile.  
“Don’t be so modest. I saw my laundry when I dropped my bag off in my room. My clothes look as good as new!”  
There was a sudden coughing snort from across the table as Baekhyun inhaled his stew and the next few minutes were a chaos of stew splatters across the table and Chanyeol smacking his back to dislodge the beef from his lungs.  
“She’s so talented.”  
He cooed. Sooyoung smiled angelically in response and beneath the table kicked him hard enough to make him yelp.  
“I just do my best.”  
She purred.


	3. Rising Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooyoung is becoming far too aware of certain members of Exo than she'd like and that awareness is causing a certain maknae emotions that seem an awful lot like jealousy.

Sooyoung was supervising breakfast the next morning. As throwing croissants at them – her preferred breakfast of choice – didn’t seem to be an option she had instead sprinted out to one of the street vendors that were selling the popular egg toast. Made up of toasted white bread with a filling of fried egg and cabbage, all with a sprinkling of brown sugar it was a perfect example of east meets west fusion food.  
“You made this?” Junmyeon asked her with wide brown eyes. “Sooyoung-ah, we’ve never eaten so well since you got here. A lot of us miss breakfast because we don’t have the time to make it.”  
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” Jongdae lectured with the zeal of a fanatic. Waving his sandwich for emphasis Sooyoung winced as she thought of the floor cleaning that would have to follow as bits of egg and cabbage flew everywhere. “You absolutely cannot do everything we have to do in a day on an empty stomach. Tell them, Sooyoung-ah!”  
“Surely, you will get sick.”  
Sooyoung agreed hesitantly. She had watched her weight like a hawk since she was about twelve years old; as had all the females in her social circle but she had the strong feeling that if these boys ate the same things as she had then they’d be dead within a week. They needed fuel. She didn’t know an awful lot about the sort of foods needed to fuel such a hectic lifestyle other than surely, they needed more rather than less and if she kept throwing food at them then it would do more good than not? Jongdae beamed at her with satisfaction. Junmyeon smiled at them both.  
“I don’t disagree, Jongdae-ya.” He said patiently. “But as I said, for some of us it is a matter of time.”  
Biting into his breakfast his eyes rolled upwards momentarily and a low groan escaped his lips. Sooyoung found her eyes glued to him. The sheer abandon of that moment stunned her: his eyes rolling back and his body stretching out in the chair, a pink tongue swiping over full lips to lick off the last, sugary traces. It was a side of a man that she had only ever seen once and for the first time since that moment her body responded. She felt a flash of heat that settled on her core and for a moment she let herself give in and imagine that she was closer to him than she was right now and that she was the reason for that sinful noise. His body was stretched out in such a way she could image straddling his lap and stretching up his muscled chest; trusting her weight to him and slipping her fingers through his soft hair, pressing her lips to taste the sugar-dusted sweetness of his lips…  
“Sooyoung-ah?”  
Blinking, she realised that Junmyeon had quite recovered from his moment and was actually now sitting upright in his chair once more with his excellent posture; staring at her quizzically. She felt a scorching blush heat her cheeks.  
“It is such a compliment to me, leader-sshi.”  
She said weakly and he smiled.  
“I shall remember the day you moved in just so we can have it as a day of celebration each year.”  
He said gently and teasingly and this time her blush was utterly absent of desire and swirled queasily with shame instead. Suddenly she did not like deceiving him, not at all. Kim Junmyeon was good and kind, so hard working and carried so much uncomplainingly on his shoulders. He deserved her to be everything she was pretending to be but wasn’t, the real deal of a house mother who could take so much weight off his shoulders so at least he could come home at night and be taken care of. But what option did she have? Like it or not she just wasn’t equipped to do this job without assistance and if that assistance came in the form of someone else doing the cooking, well, they still ate better because of it, didn’t they? She filled up his coffee mug and slid it in front of him, her hand brushing his shoulder briefly.  
“If doing my job well means that you can all do yours more comfortably then that will be celebration enough.”  
She said quietly and Junmyeon’s eyes softened into liquid pools of chocolate. Smiling at each other, Sooyoung pulled herself together and started pouring drinks for the others.

Jongdae looked at Junmyeon with growing amazement. The guy was straight, he knew that much but it was perhaps the very first time he’d seen clear evidence of how straight he was right beneath his nose. The way he was looking at their new house mother right now was of a man very impressed with a woman indeed and not just because these breakfast sandwiches were so damn good that Jongdae wanted to get a room with one, even if they were so high calorie management would have a coronary if they knew. Jongdae looked at her thoughtfully. She was young to get this job and seriously pretty but Exo had pretty women hurling themselves at them 24/7 and usually Junmyeon treated them with a gentle charm and distance. The way he was looking at Sooyoung right now was not distant. And he wasn’t the only one that had noticed. Watching them with his midnight eyes Sehun was not looking amused.

“How far have you been taking Vivi?”  
Sooyoung turned with surprise to the faintly accusatory tone in Sehun’s voice and the abruptness with which it had shattered her Junmyeon-induced reverie.  
“Vivi?”  
She asked with confusion, wondering what the hell he was talking about. Sehun’s face darkened.  
“My dog!” He replied with all the outrage that someone else might give to, “my baby!” “I just went downstairs to see her and she’s bouncing off the walls! Have you been taking her far enough? I know she’s a small dog, but she had very specific needs.”  
His… dog. Inside Sooyoung her stomach dropped right down to the floor and a flood of panic hug with the force of a tsunami. His dog! Their dogs! Oh my God, she had completely forgotten about the Exo pets. And she’d been here for over two days! Walking, feeding, cleaning up after them… she hadn’t done any of it. Sweet Jesus she could have killed them! They could have starved to death! A little hyperactivity was absolutely nothing, if Sehun had just known it and Sooyoung was passionately, desperately relieved that he didn’t! Sagging against the counter she looked back at him with a face gone absolutely white and Sehun blinked, looking taken aback.  
“Oh… hey.” He said awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to be so tough. I get overprotective about her, is all.”  
“I’m so sorry.”  
Sooyoung breathed, images of pitiful Exo pets filling her head. How many of them were there? She knew that not all the members kept their pets with them all the time. Sometimes they stayed with parents. She hoped, she prayed that right now was one of those times. Rubbing her face, she swallowed hard, feeling nausea well up inside her. Stupid, thoughtless girl! Hadn’t the pets been on the list that manager hyung had given her? He had mentioned them as being part of her job and she’d been so busy trying to impress them with her non-existent cooking that she’d completely brushed all thoughts of them to the side.  
“Hey…” A hand on her shoulder made her jump. Sehun looked down at her with a sheepish smile. “I was too much…”  
The size of his hand was a shock. He was so very much bigger than she was. Physically he overwhelmed her, even just standing close but it was a shivery sort of feeling: that of being female and fragile in the very best sort of way. Sooyoung tried to banish all thoughts of being female and fragile around Oh Sehun and actually focus on the urgent issue here.  
“You weren’t! She’s your pet and you have every right to be concerned. I’ll take her out right after breakfast.”  
The maknae actually winced.  
“You make me feel like such a dick.” He muttered. “God, don’t look at me like that. I… I can come out with you, OK? How can I shout at you if you don’t know what Vivi likes to do and I’ve never told you? I’ll show you, alright? We’ll take her out together.”  
Sooyoung felt her eyes well up with tears at his kindness and his onyx eyes widened in response. Looking in terror behind her to where Junmyeon was sitting as though the leader was seconds away from roasting him about his ill treatment of their new house mother he patted her clumsily then actually pulled her in against his chest. Suddenly finding herself sandwiched against Oh Sehun’s exquisitely chiselled body Sooyoung was too shocked to move. He was so much bigger than she was and every inch of him was solid and ungiving but covered if the softest skin and smelling like the best thing she had ever smelled. She rested her hands on his hips and tried to convince her bones that they were very much needed and should not dissolve into goo right this very second. Sooyoung was not cuddled often by men. It just wasn’t the done thing in Korean society so either Sheun was something of a rebel or – most likely – whatever the rules he wanted to hold her and so he did. What the hell was the matter with her? Seconds ago she had been inches away from straddling Junmyeon and now here she was snuggled up to the maknae? What the hell was Exo breathing out: airborne Viagra?  
“You’re working.” She mumbled from against his T-shirt. “Don’t be silly.”  
“I have time for this if we do it now. Get ready.” Sehun eased back from her and gave her a crooked grin. “But after this no excuses!”  
Finding a smile from somewhere she tried to breathe normally again. This job was hard!

Four dogs. That was the amount of Exo dogs currently in residence. It would have been seven but thanks baby Jesus and all the sweet angels that Kai’s three were currently with his parents. Standing downstairs in the room reserved for the dogs Sooyoung breathed in the stench of the dirty space and tried not to cry.  
“I’ll clean this out.”  
She whispered. Sehun was looking a little pale and less than impressed. The downstairs space was a mess and smelled atrocious. It badly needed cleaning.  
“Vivi is a clean girl and she’ll always go outside but she can’t open doors!”  
He scooped up the fluffy white dog with her black button eyes and cuddled her protectively. Sooyoung looked miserably down at the floor. Not once during all her father’s horrible lectures about living up to her potential had he ever made her feel quite so low as Sehun did right this minute. And just to make matters completely wretched, a tiny little black bundle of fluff came running up to her, tail wagging like an aeroplane propeller like she was the very best thing he’d ever seen. Scooping him up, she cuddled him to her chest and tried to swallow around the golf ball suddenly lodged in her throat.  
“I’m sorry.”  
Her voice cracked. Sehun looked at her sharply and then his hostile expression marginally softened.  
“That’s Toben; Chanyeol’s dog. This is Vivi, that’s Baekhyun’s Mongryong…” This about a fat and fluffy corgi. “…And Junmyeon hyung’s Byul.” Byul was a pale brown miniature poodle and like the three others, utterly adorable. Sooyoung knelt down and gently placed Toben on the floor, making cooing noises to entice the others closer and beginning to smile as they snuggled up against her. Tossing her three leads Sehun clipped Vivi into hers and nodded towards the door. “Come on. I’ll show you where she likes to walk.”

This part of Seoul before seven in the morning was already hot and the air beginning to shimmer faintly with the heat. But it was the coolest it would be all day and the pavements weren’t yet hot enough to burn delicate doggy paws. Walking silently together; the silence was not uncomfortable. The dogs were all delighted to be out and sniffed everything in sight with great interest and Sehun and Sooyoung were soon grinning at their antics.  
“You seem to be getting on well with everybody.”  
Sehun commented out of the blue, looking so bored at the conversation that he seemed about to fall into a catatonic stupor. Sooyoung was rather offended. If this was so boring, he was the one to bring it up!  
“Yes.” She agreed stiffly. “Everyone is being very kind.”  
“Junmyeon hyung most of all, I suppose.”  
There was a certain element of gritted teeth about this statement and Sooyoung looked with amazement as his big shoe kicked out at a stone and sent it hurtling across the street like a deadly missile. Whatever was so upsetting about Junmyeon to provoke this display?  
“He is every inch the leader.”  
She agreed. For some reason Sehun seemed to take issue with this and glowered down at her.  
“I have qualities!” He snapped peevishly and she looked up at him with astonishment. Had she ever suggested that he hadn’t? But his temper sparked hers and so she snapped back at him.  
“You told me yourself you were a spoiled brat maknae and you loved it that way!”  
“I’m the youngest in a group of nine! Sometimes you have to give in to the inevitable!”  
“Do you?”   
Sooyoung asked with annoyance. She was the baby as well and if it was so damned inevitable that she should be spoiled rotten and indulged the rest of her life then she wouldn’t be in this situation, having this conversation right now. She should still be at home, being indulged and never needing to know where the mop was kept or where to use it. Sehun looked outraged.  
“So you’ve just met us and just because Junmyeon hyung is the leader you think he’s the better man?”  
“Huh?”  
She asked intelligently, still brooding about the amount of cleaning and cooking she had to do this year whilst her friends shopped, gossiped and went to the very best parties. Perhaps if she was mingling with desirable and suitable young men then she wouldn’t be fantasising about Junmyeon’s lap or Sehun’s towel-covered thighs.  
“He’s the amazing leader and I’m a brat?”  
Abruptly Sooyoung’s full attention was right with Sehun.  
“Have I missed part of the conversation where I directly compared two men that I just met two days ago?”  
“I don’t need you to say it when you’re so clearly thinking it!”  
“You’re not a mind reader!” She yelled back at him. Facing each other in the street with the dogs spilling round their ankles they glared at each other. “Just like you weren’t a mind reader when you accused me of looking at you like a starving wolverine yesterday! And by the way that was completely unacceptable!”  
“You need me to be almost completely naked to look at me while Junmyeon hyung gets to be fully clothes and eating eggs while you’re all “Oh he’s so handsome I can barely stand it!””  
Sooyoung had the suspicion that standing there mouthing like a goldfish wasn’t a terribly attractive look for a young woman but she wasn’t actually capable of anything else.  
“You’re… jealous?”  
She ventured, her temper receding so abruptly that she was left feeling rather dizzy. Sehun flushed.  
“Don’t flatter yourself.”  
He muttered, his hands in his pockets.  
“You… like me?” Gloriously arrogant, he didn’t bother to dignify this with a response: simply looking down his ruler straight nose at her with a look of bored superiority. Her temper flaring even hotter than before Sooyoung tossed back her hair and snorted. “And I’m supposed to be so flattered that the great Oh Sehun has noticed me that I ignore this temper tantrum and anything even faintly resembling social skills and fall into your arms?”  
Sehun’s cheeks flushed poppy red and his eyes flashed.  
“Or onto your knees.” He replied silkily. “I know where I’d prefer you.”  
As he really was taller than her then the drama-esque response of slapping him silly across the face wasn’t really an option. Kicking him as hard as she could on the shin, however, was.  
“How dare you speak to me like that!”  
“You kicked me.” Sehun said in amazement before his eyes started to go apocalyptic. “You freaking kicked me! I could get you fired for this!”  
“That’s not anything compared to what I could do to you!”  
Fired at the very least, maybe even turned into dog food by her wildly overprotective father and that all sounded just fine to her. Looking angry enough to breathe fire Sehun spun on his heel.  
“Find your own way back.”  
He said curtly and stomped away. She had intended on doing exactly the same thing but now if she did he’d think that she was following him. Temper boiling like molten lava Sooyoung had no choice but to pick up the confused Vivi’s discarded lead and keep right on walking.

Sooyoung sniffed. Pathetic. She wasn’t sure what was upsetting her most. Now that the adrenaline from the fight had drained away she was left feeling tearful and hurt. She was also lost. Sitting on a wall with the dogs lying panting at her feet looking as desperate for a drink of water as she was she cursed herself for the most airheaded airhead in Seoul that she’d gone out without her phone. Who went out without a phone? Who in the world had ever rescued themselves from being lost without Google maps? Sehun was probably still angry enough that he wouldn’t even come looking for her when she was gone for too long. She could only hope that he’d wonder where Vivi was and rescue Sooyoung by default.  
“I am confused.” The lilting, lyrical accent made her jump out of her skin with shock before she looked up in desperate relief. The slender young man with glossy black hair had his eyes shielded by shades but nothing could disguise that cheek dimple. “It seems like you’re relaxing in the sun with the dogs but the look on your face suggests that this same sun has called you very bad names.”  
“Yixing-shhi!” Leaping to her feet Sooyoung drank in the sight of him in his blue jeans and old gold-coloured T-shirt and felt like the Chinese man had fluttered straight down from heaven. “You came to find me!”  
“Sehun came back in a very bad mood and when you did not come back soon after I worried.” He said simply. His dark eyes were shrewd. “And it seems I was right, perhaps? The two of you are angry with each other?”  
Angry was not the word. Sooyoung was homicidally, ferociously furious at the maknae. But what could she say to Yixing? Sehun thought she was flirting with Junmyeon whilst lusting after Sehun’s body if not his questionable leadership skills and he had made an inappropriate sexual suggestion just to swing the odds in his favour. Yixing thought she was a princess. Princesses did not generally get themselves without even trying into such a sorry mess within two days of their arrival. She managed a crooked smile.  
“Some house mother, huh?”  
Taking two of the leads from her Yixing gently took her hand and tucked it through his arm. His smile was understanding.  
“Human.” He replied. “As is Sehun. But neither of you are unkind. Whatever your hot-tempered words I think they will be forgiven and forgotten sooner than you think. Now come on. I will take you home.”

Walking in through the door with Yixing they bumped almost straight into Sehun and Junmyeon and seemed to interrupt a private and rather heated conversation.  
“What do you mean you don’t know where she is? You went out together, why did you come home alone? She doesn’t know the area, Sehun-ah!”  
Sehun was staring at the floor as though it had grievously insulted him but they both looked up sharply when the door opened. Relief flashed across his face, followed by something altogether more inscrutable when he saw Yixing by her side.  
“Sooyoung-ah, I was beginning to worry.”  
Junmyeon’s smile was like golden sunlight but weirdly conscious of the glowering maknae behind him Sooyoung found that she couldn’t immediately start babbling to the leader about unspeakably hideous his band member had been to her.  
“I wanted to take the dogs for a good, long walk this morning.” She replied lightly. “But I was conscious of your schedule. Sehun oppa does not have time to escort me all morning and I am a grown woman, am I not? I should not need it.”  
His head snapping up behind Junmyeon Sehun’s expression morphed dizzyingly between surprise, anger, embarrassment and something else. Junmyeon looked curiously at Yixing.  
“But Yixing…”  
“…Bumped into me on the way home.”  
Sooyoung replied firmly and sweetly. Yixing’s smile was non-committal as he rested a hand briefly on her shoulder and then stepped away.  
“We should be leaving very soon, no?”  
“We should…” Looking helplessly torn between punctuality and the tingling spidey-sense that something was very much amiss Junmyeon trailed after Yixing whilst glancing repeatedly over his shoulder. Sooyoung huffed out a breath. Ooof, it was hard to fool him!

“You didn’t tell him.”  
Sehun’s voice made her jump. Looking back at him she gave him her frostiest look.  
“No.”  
“Why not?” Hands in his pockets and shoulders slightly hunched he was not a happy boy. “Hyung would have skinned me and fussed all over you.”  
“Do I need that?” She snapped, feeling her temper beginning to bubble again. “Do you really think I want to cause tension between you and Junmyeon? Go to work, Sehun! Thank you for your assistance with Vivi and the other dogs but I’ll be able to manage with them from now on.”  
“I… I don’t…” Raking both hands through his glossy black hair and leaving it dishevelled Sehun swore quietly and closed his eyes for a moment. Drawing on his control, when he opened them again it was with something more closer to his usual resting bitch face. “I apologise.” He said stiffly.  
Sooyoung fought the urge to either kick him again or hug him. The man was utterly infuriating! He made her forget her upbringing entirely. And he was right… If her mother ever found out that she’d kicked a man in the shin because se was so annoyed with him she’d be beyond words with appalled horror.  
“Well… I apologise as well.” She replied with equal stiffness. Truly, it was like two corpses in the stages of rigor mortis trying to have a conversation. The image made her thaw ever so slightly. “I don’t want to fight with you, Sehun.”  
His eyes softened.  
“I don’t either.” He said quietly and held out a hand to her. “We’ve both apologised. Truce?”  
“Truce.”  
She slipped her hand into his and it engulfed her. His warm strength enveloped her and she was attacked by that strange, shivery feeling again. The feeling that suggested it would feel very good to submit all of her body to Sehun’s superior size and strength and see where it took them. Sehun’s face warmed visibly; an amused smile curving his full lips.  
“You forgive me? You like me.”  
He crowed with triumph and Sooyoung felt her cheeks burn red.  
“Yah! Why do you have to be such an ass!”  
She cried and spinning again stalked away in the direction of the stairs. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gone so far that she didn’t hear Sehun retort,  
“I have a stupendous ass and don’t say that you haven’t noticed!”  
"You're an arrogant idiot!"


End file.
